At a look

Expert’s Rating

Pros

• High efficiency, particularly the graphics
• Beautiful OLED display screen
• Good battery life
• Well-built and sensible

Cons

• Not considerably sooner than its predecessors
• Still a whole lot of fan noise

Our Verdict

The new Asus Zenbook 14 OLED has stable battery life and a beautiful OLED display screen. That stated, it’s not a lot sooner than its predecessors even with the high-efficiency Intel Core Ultra processor.

Price When Reviewed

$1,299.99

Best Prices Today: Asus Zenbook 14 Oled UX3405MA-PURE16

$1299.99

Intel simply offered its new Meteor Lake processors, and the primary laptops with the brand new circuits will quickly be on sale. Luckily, I’ve had the chance to check one among them upfront. The Asus Zenbook 14 OLED, with its beautiful show and stable graphics efficiency, has been refreshed each in and out.

This new mannequin is a thinner and lighter pc than the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED I examined final spring in addition to an up to date mannequin with the thirteenth era Core processor that had the identical design and nearly the identical weight of somewhat over three kilos. Now we get right down to 1.5cm thickness and a weight of between 2.64 and a pair of.82 kilos, relying on whether or not the mannequin has a touchscreen or not. Mine has a touchscreen, however I can’t say the additional grams hassle me a lot. For a 14-incher, that is very nice.

Looking for extra choices? Check out PCWorld’s roundup of the best laptops out there proper now.

Asus Zenbook 14 OLED: Build high quality, keyboard

The Asus Zenbook 14 OLED incorporates a stable, high quality construct. It’s nearly totally product of matte aluminum, aside from the glass display screen floor and plastic keyboard keys. The deliciously deep blue-green tones of the surfaces give the pc knowledgeable and splendid look. With the precise rounding of the perimeters on the underside, the pc is snug to carry and carry round, regardless of a extra angular grip on the display screen lid.

The keyboard is top-notch with simply the correct amount of journey and response from the massive keys. My solely criticism is that the arrow keys are a bit cramped, however that’s nearly all the time the case on small laptops and not using a numeric keypad. The mouse pad beneath has excessive precision and glorious direct response for pointing, swiping, and gesturing. It has a large floor, however shouldn’t be optimally excessive.

Mattias Inghe

Asus Zenbook 14 OLED: Touchpad, ports

A protracted press within the higher proper nook of the mouse pad lights up a numeric keypad on the floor and a press within the different nook enables you to regulate its brightness. It’s a viable various to an actual numeric keypad on the aspect, particularly in case you’ve linked an exterior mouse. It’s attainable to make use of the mouse pad for mouse management and numeric keys on the identical time, however this could generally trigger confusion.

On the perimeters you’ll discover a well-approved set of exterior connections for a skinny laptop computer. Dual thunderbolt 4 ports with USB-C connector, the place you possibly can join energy, exterior equipment and displays. Then a separate USB-A with USB-3 pace, a 3.5 mm headset jack, and a full-size HDMI 2.1 port.

It gained’t be lengthy earlier than you run out of issues to connect with until you’ve acquired an exterior mouse with a USB-A connector. You can also should spend money on a USB-C docking station if you wish to carry in additional devices. You connect with the community wirelessly with Wi-Fi 6e or less complicated. We’re nonetheless ready for Wi-Fi 7 laptops, and I had the hope that it might include this era of Intel’s processors, however it’ll take somewhat longer. In any case, it’s undoubtedly quick sufficient in opposition to the Wi-Fi 6 router I’ve out there for testing.

Mattias Inghe

Asus Zenbook 14 OLED: Bright OLED display screen

Asus has a wider vary of OLED laptops than another producer proper now, and the OLED display screen right here is nothing to sneeze at. The 2880×1800 decision makes it razor sharp and really feel pixel-free at arms size. The distinction is, in fact, One hundred pc and also you get excessive brightness of as much as 400 cd/m2 in sort brightness and as much as 550 cd/m2 in HDR mode.

The display screen is licensed for Vesa Display HDR 600 True Black, and with the precise picture supply or HDR-compatible video games in the precise mode, it may be an intense expertise. With 100% protection of the dci-p3 colour scale, you get intense and saturated colours. You have 4 predefined colour profiles to select from: srgb, pci-p3, show p3, and Native, which appears to supply deeper blues.

It’s not an actual skilled monitor with further cautious manufacturing unit calibration of colour correctness, however you possibly can all the time do it manually if you wish to. The 120Hz body price offers a pleasant move to interfaces in addition to scrolling net pages and paperwork. A response time of as little as 0.2ms offers good situations for quick gaming, if the graphics circuitry can sustain.

Mattias Inghe

Performance goes a great distance if you need the pc to edit images or video, particularly this mannequin, which is supplied with a full 32GB of RAM and a 1TB of quick SSD storage. And then, in fact, there’s the brand new processor.

Asus Zenbook 14 OLED: New processor

Meteor Lake is the code title for a brand new era of Intel Core processors for laptops. Apparently, Intel is abandoning the title Core i3, i5, i7 and i9. The processor inside this evaluate unit r is named Core Ultra 7 155H. Core Ultra is extra of an built-in SoC (System on Chip) than earlier Intel processors and contains CPUs for AI, reminiscence interfaces, IO controls, and extra highly effective graphics. Plus, it has a whopping 16 CPU cores.

Multi-threading is the long run. Six of the cores (referred to as Performance or P-core) are designed for high-performance and assist hyperthreading, permitting for a most of twenty-two parallel operations. Of the remaining ten, eight are stated to be semi-fast (Efficient or E-core) and two are further power-efficient and slower (Low Power, LP-core).

The Core Ultra processors are supposed to compete with AMD’s Ryzen 7000 sequence, at the very least the extra environment friendly cell ones with Zen4 structure that appeared in computer systems through the summer time and autumn. Powerful for skinny laptops, each on the CPU and GPU aspect, and power environment friendly.

Mattias Inghe

Asus Zenbook 14 OLED: Not an enormous enhance, however sooner

Benchmark measurements give a, nicely, cautious consequence. You’re not getting a revolution somewhat the identical gradual enchancment as between earlier processor generations.

Compared to an Intel Core i7-1360P, maybe the commonest processor on this dimension class of pc from the final Intel era, it’s a efficiency enhance of between 10 and 30 p.c relying on which pc I’m evaluating with. It various quite a bit in era 13. But on common, efficiency is undeniably greater, if not enormously so.

Is that what it is best to examine it to or does the H on the finish of the processor title imply it needs to be in comparison with the H-series of the thirteenth era? The Core i7-13700H is a processor that on paper is near the Core Ultra 7 155H, with an equal variety of P cores and E cores. They pull very evenly in my measurements, with a couple of p.c right here and there, relying on the measurement program and time.

Finally, the query is how the Core Ultra 7 155H compares to what different producers have to supply. It’s a bit sooner on all factors right here than with AMD Ryzen 7 7840U, one of many few Zen 4 processors I’ve had the chance to check. But once more, it’s a power-efficient U-series processor, so is it the precise processor to match it with? Perhaps. According to Intel, the Core Ultra 7 155H solely attracts 28 watts. That’s not dangerous in any respect.

Mattias Inghe

Likewise, it’s about the identical quantity forward of an Apple M3 in keeping with take a look at outcomes from Geekbench and Cinebench. But it’s overwhelmed by the M3 Max and M3 Ultra.

Asus Zenbook 14 OLED: Cooling, battery life

Can the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED compete in energy effectivity, coolness, and battery life? Well, no. The Arm structure has an enormous head begin on these factors. The pc can run partially on passive cooling, however you possibly can count on followers, starting from delicate whispering to obtrusive hissing, to begin up.

Pure CPU and GPU measurements don’t inform the entire story of how good a processor is as of late. There must also be built-in NPU powering AI, which helps with sure varieties of use, optimizing the pc on the system degree.

How a lot battery life you get relies on many elements, primarily the display screen and the battery itself. Powering such a quick and high-resolution OLED show can eat up power. On the opposite hand, the battery right here is comparatively giant, with a whopping 75 Wh capability. Despite this, the pc is what we class as ultra-light.

I managed to get three and a half hours out of excessive processor load and full sort brightness on the display screen. The battery lasts even longer if I take it simple with the efficiency problem and the display screen. Working on the pc for an prolonged day needs to be high-quality with out having to seek out energy retailers.

Mattias Inghe

You additionally get a useful charger that connects with USB-C. With 65 watts of energy, it fees the battery from 0-One hundred pc in lower than two hours.

Asus Zenbook 14 OLED: Fast sufficient for gaming

The Apple M3 wins the graphics efficiency race by a large margin, however the Intel Arc Graphics on this processor comes second to the Radeon 780M in AMD’s processor. The Radeon 780M can also be present in Ryzen Z1 Extreme, which powers the hand held gaming computer systems ROG Ally and Lenovo Legion Go. It’s positively highly effective sufficient to make the Zenbook 14 Oled UX3405 a good gaming PC for individuals who don’t have astronomical calls for.

On paper at the very least, it might want some driver tuning to make all video games run easily on it. The lack of devoted graphics reminiscence additionally implies that some video games have issues. I attempted putting in a few semi-demanding video games and working them at 1080p decision.

Subnautica runs easily with good fluidity between 50 and 70 fps whereas Horizon: Zero Dawn first complains about lack of video reminiscence, then has bother discovering the precise facet ratio. It additionally doesn’t look good after I manually go in and drive the sport to render the picture within the acceptable format. Perhaps it’s attainable to get optimized drivers that clear up this, however proper out of the field there’s so much to trim.

Asus Zenbook 14 OLED: Far from silent

If you set your pc’s followers to “Performance Mode”, it’s possible you’ll discover aggressive hissing sounds as they energy as much as cool issues down. You’ll have to up the quantity to drown out the sound. Fortunately, you possibly can squeeze out loads of sound from the built-in audio system mounted on the underside close to the entrance edge. With Dolby Audio assist and a Harman/Kardon sound system, the standard is excessive, though a number of the finer particulars within the treble are lacking.

Asus Zenbook 14 OLED: Specifications

Product title: Asus Zenbook 14 OLED UX3405MA-PURE16
Tested: December 2023
Manufacturer: Asus
Processor: Intel Core Ultra 7 155H, 6pcs P-core as much as 4,8 GHz + 8pcs E-core, 2pcs LP-core
Graphics: Intel Arc Graphics
Memory: 32 GB ddr5
Storage: 1 TB ssd
Displays: 14 inch shiny oled, 2880×1800 pixels, 16:10, multitouch, 120 Hz
Webcam: 1080p with ir
Connections: 2pcs Thunderbolt 4, usb-a 3.0, hdmi 2.1, headset
Wireless: Wifi 6e, Bluetooth 5.3
Operating system: Windows 11 Home
Noise degree: 0-39 dBa
Battery life: 75 Wh, 3 hrs 30 min (excessive load, full brightness), approx. 17 hrs (low load, low brightness)
Size: 31.2 x 22 x 1.5 cm
Weight: 2.82 kilos
Recommended retail value: $1,299.99

Asus Zenbook 14 OLED: Performance

Cinebecnh R23, multi-core CPU: 11,057 factors
Cinebench R23, single core CPU: 1,726 factors
Geekbench 6, multi-core CPU: 12,577 factors
Geekbench 6, single core CPU: 2,378 factors
Geekbench 6, GPU: 33,990 factors
3DMark Fire Strike (DirectX 12): 6,063 factors
3DMark Time Spy (DirectX 12): 2,871 factors
Disk, learn: as much as 4,925.51 MB/s
Disk, write: as much as 3,292.92 MB/s

This evaluate was translated from Swedish to English and initially appeared on pcforalla.se.